Zimmerman: National League co-Player of the Week

So I don't want to detract from the discussion about the Bonds ball and Austin Kearns (or, for that matter, Ryan Church or Nook Logan, if Bonds goes oppo or straightaway). But some actual news:

Ryan Zimmerman has been named the National Leage's co-Player of the Week. He's sharing the honor with Arizona right-hander Brandon Webb, who out-dueled the Dodgers' Brad Penny yesterday, won both his starts and pitched 16 innings of shutout ball, walking two and striking out 11. A very nice week, considering the Diamondbacks also moved into first place. (We'll see them over the weekend in Phoenix. By the way, ever try packing for a San Francisco-Phoenix trip in August. High here today will be 58. High on Friday in Phoenix will be 104. Makes the 93 degrees it is in D.C. today feel a bit balmy.)

Anyway, Zimmerman. Let's review his stats from those six games over the past week, shall we:

This could be remembered as the week when Zimmerman salvaged his season. He entered those six games hitting .259 with a .312 on-base percentage and a .427 slugging percentage. That one hot streak later, and he's at .274(+15)/.324(+12)/.455(+28).

Zimmerman is now on pace for 25 homers (five more than last year), 89 RBI (21 fewer than last year), and 39 doubles (eight fewer than last year).

Other news: First-round pick Ross Detwiler, the lefty from Missouri State, will start Thursday for Class A Potomac in a game at Frederick.

Also: Remember Jerome Williams? The Nationals released him from Class AA Harrisburg today. Dude went 0-5 with a 7.20 ERA and had two stints on the disabled list for the Nats. He then went 0-3 with a 9.08 ERA in 14 appearances, just four starts, for Harrisburg. Reliever Dan Kolb also released. Reliever Adam Carr was one of two players (along with infielder Brandon Powell) promoted from Class A Potomac. Carr is 3-1 with a 1.81 ERA and 13 saves for Potomac.

And from the Self-Promotional Department: I'll be on Washington Post Radio (1500 AM/107.7 FM) at 5:50 p.m. your time to talk about Bonds/the Nats/Zimmerman/the winning streak, etc. I'll then be on "Washington Post Live" on Comcast SportsNet at 6 p.m. to talk about the Nats. Ken Rosenthal will also appear on that show, I believe right at 5 p.m. or so.

Here's a food for thought article on Slate.com today that I thought many of you would find worth the 5 minutes to read it and think about it.

http://www.slate.com/id/2171729

What if Doping Were Legal?
A Slate thought experiment.
By Daniel Engber
Posted Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, at 11:39 AM ET
It's been a rough stretch for pro sports. Last Thursday, Barry Bonds faced boos--and even a steroids awareness seminar--as he tried to break the all-time home run record in Los Angeles. The next day, Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Ryan Tucker was suspended from the NFL for using steroids. And we're just a week removed from the shameful drug haze at this year's Tour de France. We've reached a crisis point, it seems, when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs. But what if none of this cheating mattered? With your help, I'm going to conduct a little thought experiment: What would the sports world look like if every athlete could inject himself with God knows what?

The premise isn't new. After the Olympic doping scandals of the late 1990s, International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch tested the waters of drug legalization in an interview with a Spanish newspaper. "Doping now is everything that, firstly, is harmful to an athlete's health and, secondly, artificially augments his performance," he said. "If it's just the second case, for me that's not doping." But his proposal (if that's what it was) went over like a lead balloon. Sports officials sputtered about the spirit of competition, and doctors argued that legal doping would never be safe for the athletes. Within a few days, Samaranch backed off.
Read More here...

The press release for the P-Nats says that two of the 4 top draft picks for the Nats now play for Potomac, I guess the other two are Zim and Wilems (A-VT). How long till marrero (and Daniels?) Move up to Harrisburg?

Also, do we expect all our top pitchers to finish out their years in VT?

Farid,
That may be a little high on the avg. and RBIs, but one great thing is that even when he wasn't playing that great early in the year he still had good BBvsSO numbers for a power guy. I think he"l also end up near the top of the Total Bases race.

Barry, it would be nice if somebody (hint, hint) could query Rosenthal as to why he thought the Nats should have traded Cordero and Rauch. Since he believed they should have traded them, he must have inside knowledge that they were offered decent value. If he doesn't know what they were offered, then on what basis does he assert they were wrong in not dealing the pair?

Bowden is just supposed to do the other GM's bidding, lest he "irritate" them, to use Rosenthal's word. Frankly, Rosenthal is beginning to "Olney" me these days.

I was watching a game and it was a tie in late innings. There were no outs. Zim hit a double and then Dmitri got up to bat. This was very similar to the situation in the All-Star game when Bonds went for the fence and got a fly out that Reyes couldn't advance on. Dmitri hit a grounder down the first base line and was put out unassisted, but got Zimmerman to third.

I felt overjoyed, because we had a power hitter on the team who was the opposite of Barry Bonds: willing to avoid the flashy chance at being a hero in order to help the team win.

In response to Barry Bonds impending record breaking hit, I propose we all tell stories of the best team players we've seen in baseball. It would make me feel a lot better.

Having grown up a Pittsburgh fan, no player then or since has struck me so forcefully as a team player as did the late Willie Stargell.

Dancer13 and others, remember "Stargell Stars"? He awarded one of those cap-adornments starting in the late 70's whenever a teammate made a vital contribution to a Pirates win. I don't remember that anyone ever turned one down, and I don't remember that he ever took one for himself.

It would be great if a native Pittsburgher on this blog could share a memory of an encounter with Stargell. I never enjoyed that privilege, but I never heard of a bad one.

Stargell was more than a powerful athlete who led his team to two World Championships. He played baseball as hard as you could ask for, but never forgot that it was supposed to be fun. He was a fan favorite, a mentor, and a mensch (at least as this card-carrying gentile understands the term). He was taken from us too soon, so soon that I still am given a bit of a pause when I remember that he's gone.

Thanks for all you did for the Bucs and their fans, Pops. And thanks to 506 for evoking the memory.

As a former O's fan, I recall Stargell with disdain. Not for the ballplayer and inspirational force behind the Bucs 1979 run to the championship, but for elevating Sister Sledge "We are Family" to still haunt me to this day.

If he can't go I guess we'll see more of Jiminez, but I'm curious if he'll lead off. With the way Nook has been swinging the bat it would be interesting to see how he'd do with Belliard and Zimmerman hitting behind him instead of Lannan.

If not that maybe moving him to 9th in the line-up, ala LaRossa. It's not like Scjneider could do much worse with the bat with the pitcher behing him than he does with Logan.

Barry Bonds, and the other steroid-addled sluggers that have cheated their way into the record books have taken two of the most hallowed baseball records and turned them into meaningless numbers. Perhaps A-Rod will break the record someday, but his greatness won't be diminished if he doesn't make it, because the number will soon be artificially high.

To that end, how is Bonds pursuit of the record relevant to the Nats? The smart team will find an advantage, because the home-field experience for the Giants has become a sideshow. The Nats have a job to do... win the games.

Not to mention... There are few parks that are more difficult to hit a home run in than RFK... but AT&T just happens to be one of them.

Natscan entreats: "Please pray that Barry whiffs each time, so they [TSN?] show the whole series." (TSN, or whoever, is covering the Giants in Canada as long as it takes for Everybody's Favorite Giant to get it over with.)

For Natscan's sake, extending the span of Nats visibility is a worthy hope.

But you know what? I really don't give a rat's if a Nats pitcher does pull an Al Downing in SF. Because you know what else? That unlucky man is gonna climb back up the hill, and he's gonna try to get the next batter out, and the Nats are gonna battle on.

That's the way our guys have been working this season. That's as it should be. The lesson may be lost on those who gape at gaudy numbers, and to whom Bud and the Lords have been pandering in the post-strike years.

Bad news about Lopez, I'm interested to see how Logan does in the lead off role. Having Belliard and Zimmerman batting behind him should help a lot, but I hope he isn't afraid to bunt for a base hit if the third baseman doesn't play him in.

Maybe the low-def is making me see things... Did that sign behind Lannan warming up say "You are in last place. Just pitch to Barry."?? Hello?! Have they looked at their own record lately? They have four fewer wins than us.

Nice start to the game; too bad to only plate one. But yikes, two up became two on real quick...

I'm hoping to keep the Bonds chase the whole series to get some national air time (everywhere except DC that is). I'm not dissing the Carp and Sutton, but I would like to hear what the national audience is hearing about the Nats.